Mountview Plaza Wines & Liquors is pleased to host several great beer events in the next two months -- most of which are for charity.

4th Annual LAM Foundation Beer & Wine Tasting, Saturday, April 4th, 6 – 9 p.m. at the Naugatuck Elk’s Club. This event features around 20 different international wines and 20 different beers, plus food, for a total price of $25 (which includes a $5 store credit towards the purchase of beer or wine after the event). This event is a great value-- the food is fantastic, hot and cold appetizers prepared on site, and we will have a good selection of new and interesting beers and wines from around the world – including introduction of beers from Kona Brewing (Hawaii) and Lake Placid Brewing (NY). Tickets are on sale at the store or can be purchased at the front door for $30. All proceeds go to the LAM Foundation [LAM is an acronym for a rare, and oftentimes undiagnosed, lung disease which affects only women].

B. United International’s Spring Portfolio Beer Tasting, Tuesday, May 5th, 7 p.m. atMy Place Restaurant in Newtown. B. United International will present some of their new releases (check out their web site). The cost is $30-35 per person which includes all food and beer. Special pricing, for all beers tasted, is offered to attendees. If you want to attend you must reserve, in advance, with Mark Tambascio at My Place Restaurant. This is a great opportunity to taste some of the most unique beers in the world. Mark’s events always sell out quickly and you are getting advance notice to get your reservation in early.

Beer Dinner featuring the beers of Saranac and Lake Placid Breweries will be held at Jesse Camille’s Restaurant on Thursday, April 30th starting at 6:30 p.m. This space does not allow for a full menu description but the dinner includes a reception with Lake Placid Ubu Ale, a choice of great appetizers with Adirondack Lager, Soup or Salad (your choice) with Saranac Pomegranate Wheat, an Entrée of Pan-Seared Frenched Pork Chop with Saranac Pale Ale, Dessert with Saranac Caramel Porter. Matt Bronson, CT’s Brewery Rep., will be our guest speaker. The cost is $45 per person (all inclusive) with all proceeds benefiting the Camille Perugini Memorial Trust fund. Reservations are required and can be made at the store or directly to Jesse Camille’s Restaurant (203) 723-2275. If you want a complete copy of the menu send me an e-mail and I will send it to you.

We again anticipate around 40 U.S. breweries and CT brewpubs to be represented, pouring in excess of 125 different beers. Live music and food prepared by Jesse Camille’s Restaurant. Tickets ($30 in advance, $35 at the door) go on sale the week of April 1st or are available on line at our web site at WineCT.com (click on our store). All proceeds go to the Camille Perugini Memorial Trust Fund which annually awards deserving high school seniors in the greater Waterbury area with college scholarships. This is CT’s oldest and longest continually run brewfest and presents a veritable “Who’s Who” of United States beers and breweries available in CT. As always, we will have several new breweries participating including new beers from Kona Brewing (Hawaii), Lake Place (NY) and Widmer (WA).

In-Store Beer Tasting on Friday May 22nd from 4 – 7 p.m. featuring Cailin Stack, Brewery Representative, who will pour beers from Cisco Brewers and Ipswich. The tasting is free and special pricing will be offered for these beers the evening of the tasting only.

Mark Your Calendarsfor our 4th Annual Brass City Brewfest Sat., September 12th from 1 – 5 p.m. in Library Park, downtown Waterbury. This has become, in my opinion, CT’s premiere beer tasting event with over 250 different beers (over 300 last year!) from over 100 breweries from the U.S. and abroad. We plan on again having a dedicated Belgian Beer Tent subject to support from our Belgian beer importers. Details will be posted on our web site at: http://www.brasscitybrewfest.com/ Several improvements are being made this year including adding two large tents to allow for more room and adding a third tent where a series of Beer Seminars will be run on a regular cycle to give you a little “education” and respite from the tasting masses. Tickets will go on sale in July. The price this year will again be $30 in advance, $35 at the door. There is an additional $10 charge if you want to delve into the world of Belgian beers in the Belgian beer tent. These prices include all beer tasted and live music. Four or more area restaurants will offer great food. Special promotions are held by local beer bars and restaurants in the area following the event. All proceeds benefit Main Street Waterbury.

Tickets will be available at the store, My Place Restaurant, Maltose Express for the CT Craft Brewers Beerfest and Waterbury Brass City Brewfest or through Etix.com.

We have a large and growing number of home “kegerator” clients and offer full service support including refrigerator conversion kits, spare parts, a loaner cleaning kit, and expertise. We assist you in ordering kegerator systems and parts at favorable pricing and will work to ensure you get the right set-up for your requirements.

More importantly, we offer the largest selection of kegs anywhere, always at discounted prices, and normally keep 10 to 15 different logs in our refrigerator at all times. We also offer our clients the opportunity to get unique beers not readily available, including Brooklyn Brewery’s Brewmaster Series, special orders directly from breweries like Allagash and Smuttynose, as well as hard to find beers like Ithaca’s Flower Power (see below). If you want to be added to our Kegerator Korner Kustomers (KKK??) List please send me a separate e-mail. This will give you advance notice of new and limited kegs becoming available on a first come, first served basis.Brooklyn Intensified Coffee Stout—Brooklyn Brewery’s newest Brewmaster series (draft only). Here’s their description: “Winter’s getting pretty old, isn’t it? Well, springtime is on the way, and we think it’s time to perk up. As strange as it may seem, coffee is intricately entwined with the story of modern stouts. Until the 1700’s, most dark beers were smoky in flavor – the malts were dried over wood fires. It was the development of coffee roasting technology that soon allowed brewers to achieve clean roasted flavors in their malts. It’s not surprising that the fruit and roast notes in fine coffees meld perfectly with roasted malt flavors. For our coffee we went directly to the ultimate source, Duane Sorenson of the famous Stumptown Coffee Roasters. Stumptown originally hails from Portland, Oregon, but they’ve just started roasting in Red Hook, Brooklyn also, and we’re pleased to welcome them to the neighborhood. We’ve brewed the beer with solid British and American malts, and then “intensified” our stout with Duane’s Guatemalan Full City roast beans, giving the beer a wonderfully complex coffee aroma and flavor. This beer pairs beautifully with burgers, venison, duck, desserts, and….ummm…brunch. Yeah, you bet. So if winter’s tired you out, try Brooklyn Intensified Coffee Stout. It’s a stimulus package we can all believe in.” 8% abv. If interested you must pre-order this beer now as supply is limited.

BEER NEWS

Here’s some inside scoop on what’s happening in the beer world here in CT…

Price Increases. As most of you know, the cost of raw materials for brewing, transportation, etc have gone up. To add to the fire, the CT state legislature decided to recover the revenue associated with unreturned bottles to distributors (not recognizing the costs that distributors incur by having to pick up, warehouse and dispose of the bottles which are returned). The Legislature is also looking at increasing the excise taxes on liquor and possibly increasing the deposit charges on bottles to 10 cents from the current level of five. The net result of all of this has been, and continues to be, significant increases on my costs which necessitate increases on our shelf prices. I am not happy about this any more than you are. I have begun discontinuing beers which I feel are over priced and bumping up against $11.99 - $13.99 a six pack. These include former mainstays like Einbecker’s Mai Ur Bock, Tommyknocker, Stoudts and others. While not in maintaining these in stock, I can still order these by the case if requested.

Not to get our hopes up too much but Stone Brewing has been recently “sniffing around” the CT market for possible entry. Distributors are pursuing them so we’ll see what happens…

RodenbachRed Ale and Rodenbach Grand Cru will become available again in the latter part of April following a one year absence from the market. New beers will also be available from the vanSteenberg brewery in Belgium.

Victory Brewing has recently assigned a new state rep. in the area and I am anticipating an expansion of their available product line in CT later in the year—including a variety 12 pack. Victory’s Hop Wallop is now available on a year around basis.

Ithaca Brewery’s Flower Power IPA will be again made available to CT in late April or May. Due to the cost of hops, the price has gone up and the six pack will retail for around $11.99 and logs (limited availability) around $90. If you want some I would recommend pre-ordering now as bottles and logs will be limited.

Captain Lawrence Brewing’s beers continue to be very limited in CT, with only draft (1/2 barrels only) offered for the most part. However, Scott Vaccaro’s Smoke in the Oak will be offered in April, on a limited basis, in cork finished 750 ml bottles for around $15. I would recommend pre-ordering if you want to ensure some supply.

New England Brewing’sWee Willie Scotch Ale should be available soon. After a long dialogue, the labels have finally been approved. The good news is that this beer has been aging since the fall of 2007 and should be ready to drink upon arrival this month. Supply is limited and pricing is expected to be equivalent to the Stout Trooper.

Mountview Plaza Wines & Liquor has been owned and operated by Terry Boyd & Michael Steir since 1994. It is conveniently located next to Super Stop & Shop in the Mountview Plaza at 727 Rubber Avenue, Naugatuck, CT. The store is the largest in the area and offers an extensive selection of wines, liquor and beer at discounted prices.

The store staff prides itself on product knowledge and customer service. If we haven't got your favorite in stock we can usually get it within 24 hours. We offer free event planning (in terms of alcoholic beverages, of course) and specialize in food and wine or beer matching. We are actively involved in the regional community, organizing and annually hosting numerous charity tasting events.

Known as "CT's Beer Capital", we are CT's number one ranked beer store on RateBeer.com and BeerAdvocate.com in terms of service and selection, with over 700 different beers available at any time. We specialize in specialty ales and hard to find beers. We have a large and growing clientele with home keg systems which we supply (150+ kegs to choose from) and support as needed.

Tickets for all beer events can be ordered by telephone at Mountview Plaza Wines & Liquors (203) 729-5445 or via e-mail through CTBrews@aol.com.Brew News-You Heard It Here First!

Here’s some info on what’s happening in the beer world here in CT…

Price Bulletin!! As I am sure all of you have noticed, especially if you are a homebrewer, the costs of raw materials for beer have risen sharply. These additional costs are translating to price increases in the range of $1 to $2 per six pack or 750 ml bottle. Huge increases in the brewers’ costs of hops and malt, coupled with the high fuel costs for transportation, and the weakening dollar overseas affecting all of the imports, have all converged on us resulting in substantially higher prices for quality beers. Hops prices have increased up to tenfold in some cases and malt costs are often up 300 – 400% over last year. Brewers, forced to buy hops on the open market, are seeing exorbitant pricing—if they can find the hops at all. The larger breweries with have long term contracts with malt and hop producers, have not been hurt as much but are still feeling the pinch. What caused this great hop and malt shortage? The rush to produce ethanol based products. Given the hops shortage, the over reaction (my view) to ethanol solutions, and the quick growth cycle of hops once they are planted, we are hoping that plantings will increase and hops prices will come back down in a year or two but this is uncertain. In the meantime, breweries, distributors and retailers have to pass along their additional costs.

B. United International and Shelton Brothers have many unique and interesting offerings coming this year which you can see from their web sites. Many of these are very limited and will be hard to find or get in CT. I would recommend that you contact me if there is something special you are looking for and I can give you input on the availability of these products.

Many of you had the opportunity to try the Brooklyner-Schneider Hopfen Weisse beers last year which were very limited. Both versions of this dry hopped German style wheat beer were terrific. Two versions were produced, one from Schneider & sons in Germany (available in bottles only) and one from Brooklyn (available in kegs only). Both breweries are in the process of brewing another batch and bottles of both should be available soon—the Schneider version is due in in mid-April. If you missed out the first time or want to secure some more, please let me know and I will try to fill all orders.

Speaking of Brooklyn Brewery, they are continuing their series of Brewmaster Reserve beers which are available only in kegs (1/6 and _ BBL) and only by special order. Most of these beers are Belgian inspired and represent great values as they usually cost less than half of what a comparable Belgian beer would cost. Here’s the plan for 2008:

One of my favorite Belgian breweries, RegenboogRegenboog, has taken a break from brewing and no more beers are planned for this year. I still have several types available including my favorite, BBBourgondier.

Many of you have asked when Captain Lawrence Brewing (Scott Vaccaro, former head brewer at Danbury’s Colorado Brewpub) is coming to CT. They are almost here…kegs (1/2 BBLs only) are arriving in March with growlers to follow, hopefully in the late spring. The five initial offerings will be Brown Ale, Double IPA, Liquid Gold, Pale Ale, and Smoked Porter.

As some of you know, Victory Brewing has bought the rights to brew Heavyweight Brewings beers. Last year they brewed their version of Percuno’s Hammer. Called Baltic Thunder. Unfortunately, this beer is not available in CT (although I heard that it can be found in MA).

The award winning Cambridge Brewhouse Cambridge Brewhouse

Opa Opa Brewing Company, available in the eastern half of the state is slated to come into the western half of the state soon. I was told March, but I haven’t seen them on my price sheets yet. Maybe April…

Olde Burnside will be introducing a new beer this spring, a wheat ale. New England’s Scotch Ale is also in the tanks and I (and others) are anxiously awaiting its arrival having tasted it at the Bar Real Ale Festival in January.

I have been frustrated in trying to Kasteel Red in stock. Unless I can get my distributor to order some (and so far I haven’t been able to) we will not be getting this in CT. I’ll keep trying.

This section is meant to provide viewers with a listing of new beers arriving in our store. It is refreshed every other month or so. Some beers may be very limited and presold based upon our Beer Newsletter e-mailed to our clients. If you would like to be added to our Beer Newsletter list (published approximately bi-monthly), contact Terry Boyd.

* For a description of all of these beers, imported by B. United International, please visit their web site at: www.bunitedint.com** For a description of all of these beers, imported by Shelton Brothers, please visit their web site at: www.sheltonbrothers.com

From Route 8. Take Exit 26 and turn north onto Rte 63 into Naugatuck. Turn left at the Dunkin Donuts traffic light (approx. 1/3 mile from Rte 8 exit) onto Rubber Avenue (heading west). Continue 1 1/3 miles to Mountview Plaza on your right. The store is located in the plaza next to Super Stop & Shop.

From I-84. Take Exit 17 and head south on Route 63 into Naugatuck. Continue through town (approximately 3+ miles from I-84 exit) to Dunkin Donuts (on your right). Turn right at traffic light onto Rubber Avenue (heading west) and proceed as above.view map